The present invention relates to the field of lockout devices which are intended to lock the handle of a valve in its closed position; more specifically, the present invention relates to a lockout device for use with a valve of the type having a handle in the form of a lever.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) recently issued a standard relating to safety requirements for the control of hazardous energy, 29 CFR .sctn.1910.147, effective as of Oct. 31, 1989, entitled Control of Hazardous Energy Sources (Lockout/Tagout). The standard establishes procedures to disable machinery or equipment and prevent the release of potentially hazardous energy while maintenance and servicing activities are performed. The standard requires, inter alia, that an energy source having a line valve that is capable of being locked out must be locked out to insure that equipment being controlled cannot be operated until the lockout device is removed. A lockout device is defined in the regulation as a positive means such as a lock to hold an energy isolating device in the safe position and prevent energizing of machinery or equipment. The regulation is applicable to any source of electrical, mechanical, hydraulic, pneumatic, chemical, thermal or other energy.
Many types of machinery and equipment have energy supplied by a fluid carried in a pipeline such as a hydraulic line, compressed air line, water line, etc. The pipeline will have a valve located near the machine that is used to shut off the flow of fluid to the machine when maintenance or service work is to be performed. One type of valve in general use as a shut off valve for fluid carrying pipelines has a handle in the form of a lever that can be moved between an open position for passage of fluid through the pipeline and a closed position to shut off the flow of fluid. The above OSHA regulation will now require that a lever type valve, when installed on a pipeline carrying an energy source to machinery or equipment, must include some form of device so that the valve can be locked in the closed position during maintenance or service.
New lever type valves are on the market at the present time that include a built-in lockout feature, and it is anticipated that new valves will have this feature when purchased. However, there are presently hundreds of thousands of lever type valves in service and it would be extremely expensive to retrofit pipelines with new valves having a built-in lockout feature. There is therefore a need for a lockout device that can be retrofitted to existing lever type valves, and the present invention was developed in response to this need.